Nanuku - on rising tides

Today, Sunday 26th April, I took Holy Communion Services at Dudley Methodist Church and then at Vatuwaqa. Both are congregations of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma's Indian Division. I'm regularly on the Plan at Dudley which is pretty much town centre, but was particularly glad to spend time at the settlement church a little further away. The small church itself is in Nanuku, and that's where Seleshni - or Shelley as she prefers - and family live. Here they are outside the family home. Shelley's on the back row in the middle With her Mum on the right and on the left daughter Rosie (who wants to be a Methodist Deaconess - hurrah!) holding Wendy.

A few weeks ago Shelley was looking for some work. We linked up and she kindly agreed to handle domestic work at House 12 on the PTC campus, where I live. She's a God-send, dealing with practical stuff around the home like a breath of fresh air. Her friendly 'can do' approach and her faith inspire me. At the Nanuku Church she's the leading steward and passionately committed to Christ and Christian witness among neighbours and the community. There's a bold, white cross on her front door for all to see.

Nanuku settlement really suffers when it's high tide, and in heavy rains even more. It's right next to mangrove swamps and underfoot becomes a complete mud bath. Shelly's family have arranged huge old tyres off HGVs in a line up to the house to act as a rubber walkway: one of many ingenious and creative solutions to challenging living conditions. 

After church today, Pastor Timoci who offers pastoral care to the congregation and I were invited home for curry and rice and roti etc. And the traditional cup of kava, naturally. Generous and loving hospitality gratefully received.

And there was a baby to be blessed. Shelley's younger sister gave birth to tiny Dev last week and after a short spell in hospital, he's home and the centre of attention. Today held a great deal.

For the families of Nanuku, we thank you God.

Watch over them and sustain them we pray.

May whatever is needful be made tangible,

so that baby Dev and his whole community

may know the fullness of life you promise.  Amen

Goodbye Sydney Hello Steve

Steve Pearce is the Methodist Church's Partnership Co-ordinator for Asia and the Pacific and very good it was to see him too when he spent almost a week here recently. He's a bit like a doctor doing the rounds really: checking up on Mission Partners like me to ensure they're not more trouble than they're worth - quite right too - and reconnecting with people and projects in this area that the Methodist World Mission Fund partners with. You can read Steve's own report by clicking here and scrolling down to April 2015 Fiji Report.

The World Mission Fund has offered a rolling grant to the work of the Pacific Theological College for a number of years now: currently £10,000 annually each to the Residential and Extension programmes. No discrimination there which is great! It also contributes 25% to the current mission partner appointment, ie, me. Too often at the College here, the discourse around overseas Churches and agencies who offer support is entirely about money, and I've found that a bit troubling. So I was delighted that our Principal agreed to Steve giving a hour's presentation to the community - see him in action above - about partnership in mission, and the aspirations we hold about that. For sure, the weight of colonial history, the 'power' that comes with being a funder of anything, and the resources British Methodism can still choose to share or withhold skew the conversation if we're not careful. 

But Steve's presentation emphasising the overriding principle of partnership in mission was well received and generated good questions. For some it didn't go deep enough (he had his ear bent about that!) but for most it was a real window on the wider world Church. Methodists abound here, and so it was of particular denominational interest too and shed a lot of light for local Methodists on how British Methodism and the World Church relationships team relate to this area of the world. I was so grateful to Steve for inspiring PTC with this presentation and so very glad he was able to be more visible to the community. I was absolutely determined not to let him simply be whisked in and out of the finance office! It was lovely to have Steve visit us and his work on the Asia-Pacific desk is firmly on PTC's prayer list. 

New connections: with Ismael Silak from West Papua and Rev Dr Donald Samuel, Faculty member.

Old friends: catching up with Fijian colleagues who have worked or studied in the UK through Methodism's World Church in Britain or Scholarship and Leadership Training Programmes. Front left, back to camera in the brownish shirt, is Rev Akuila Yabaki who used to be based in Methodist Church House, London - doing Steve's job. Global partnership personified.

More Holy Week in Sydney...

Towards the Cross

As I was saying in the previous post, Holy Week in Sydney was a great time for walking and wondering, pausing and praying. Here's a little more of what I mean....

Striding along the Harbour Bridge out of the city - my first Holy Week outing - I found myself heading appropriately but unexpectedly towards the cross. A white cross, bold and positioned high on a red brick building at Milson's Point. Later research revealed the place to be St Aloysius' College, a Jesuit school for boys dating back to 1548. Here's what the College says about itself in 2015.

Today Jesuit schools are committed to form people of conscience, compassion and competence. Our way of proceeding includes some key themes:

• Finding God in all things: every aspect of our life and labour can affirm the goodness and presence of God.
• 
  
• Cura personalis: we seek to foster a culture of concern and pastoral care where students, staff and families feel accepted for who they are and what they might become.
• 
  
• Formation of the whole person: we focus on the intellectual, affective and moral to develop a sense of self-worth and of one’s place in the world.

• Being men and women for others: we want to show love in deeds and to serve others generously.
• 
  
• Engaging with the wider world: we aim to be aware of the challenges of our time.
• 
  
• Encouraging excellence: we want to be distinguished for our academic, co-curricular and pastoral provision through which we encourage a bountiful development of gifts for others.
• 
  
• Co-operating in the mission of the Church and the Jesuits: we want to witness to Christ’s presence in the world, to find and form Christian community and to participate in Church life. 
• 
  
• We seek to serve the needs of the world and the Church especially in the light of the apostolic aims of the Jesuits.
• 
  

Inspirational aims don't you think? With challenging aspirations for any one of us seeking to be formed by Christ and for Christ in today's world. I particularly like their '3 Cs' - conscience, compassion, competence. 

Movements in Mission

It's years and years since I'd encountered Revd Dr Keith Garner and Carol in their UK days so it was lovely to meet up at Wesley Mission's midweek Easter luncheon and hear Keith on great form at the lectern. They became Australian citizens in 2009 and have devoted themselves with passion to Wesley - a big set up - which has social justice in Christ's name at its heart. We didn't have the conversation about whether they would term themselves in any way 'missionaries' or 'mission partners'. They've clearly embraced Australia and are well tuned in to Sydney's heartbeat - real Sydney not 'tourist' Sydney. 

The Revd James McLeod made a missionary journey to Australia a few years previously to Keith. A Scottish Presbyterian missionary, he was minister at St Stephen's - now Uniting Church - from 1933-39. I went to St Stephen's to hear their Good Friday offering of Olivet to Calvary - moving and musically accomplished. This window's quote preserves the good Revd James's reflection on his missionary immersion into and appreciation of new surroundings.

But how about this accompanying window for a sting in the tale?

Was he teasing? Or did he live convinced that the beauty of his native land could never be surpassed? Australia would always be second best, even though he'd learned to love it? 

And whose land anyway was he measuring and assessing? I was at Pitt Street Uniting Church, a short hop away, on Easter Sunday and reflected on the words very intentionally placed on sheet one of the service order

We acknowledge the Gadigal clan, part of the Eora nation,

who are the traditional custodians

of the sacred land on which we gather

This serves to highlight the Uniting Church's recognition of 

the pain and damage caused to our country’s native people through settlement and beyond. In 1997, recognising its past mistakes, the Uniting Church made a formal apology to the Stolen Generation. We participate each year in National Sorry Day. 

For more information on justice and community services in the Uniting Church visit the UnitingJustice website or the UnitingCare Australia website.

I've read no history of James McLeod and so have no extra insight or take on this one sentence of his commemorated in glass. It just struck a chord with me, a newish mission partner in Fiji, for whom new and precious places are being discovered daily. McLeod's window spoke of 'beauty', and that's a deep concept to process in itself. Whom and what do we treasure as beautiful and why? Will England's green and pleasant land always rate more highly for me than Fiji in the beauty stakes? And by what criteria would I ever compare them?

Bluebells at Leith Hill near Dorking, Surrey in the UK

Fiji flowers in Thurston Gardens, Suva just down the road from PTC

I wondered as I wandered... and not least at the commemorative plaque beneath my feet just before the Harbour Bridge.

Holy Week in Sydney

It was a bit of a last minute decision, but such a good one. 

Having waved palms with Wesley City Mission here - see previous blog - I flew Suva to Sydney for one week, Monday to Monday, and spent a memorable time walking the way of the cross and the pathways of the city. What a totally stunning urban landscape! I've always wanted to go and it's a bit easier from Fiji...

At various times during seven holy, happy days, I touched base with St Stephen's Uniting Church, Pitt Street Uniting Church, St Mary's RC Cathedral, Wesley Central Mission and the Uniting Theological College. But most often I would find myself drawn to Christchurch St Laurence in Railway Square, diagonally opposite my hotel, three minutes exactly from room to pew. 

Ten days before, I didn't know this Church existed, nor that it offered, excellently and exquisitely, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, a full and rich pilgrimage through Holy Week. I didn't know either that the thoughtful and human preacher for the week would be the Revd Prebendary Nick Mercer of St Paul's Cathedral London, who started his theological journey initially at Spurgeon's College, my home before Fiji. His Holy Week sermons ensured that Word as well as Sacrament was very present to feed mind and soul. The video below is a snapshot of St Laurence's 2014 Holy Week. I hope I can blog the equivalent for 2015 in due course.

It would be impossible to reflect the week fully, but some thoughts and images in posts to follow offer a flavour. It was my first visit away from Suva since arriving last August. As a rest-retreat with a healthy balance of stimulation and reflection, it was a winner. I'm truly thankful.

Watching and following Jesus as he carries his cross through Sydney's high glitz shopping and business district on Good Friday - the moving drama and procession c/o Wesley Central Mission

Watching and smiling as vapour trail Easter theology is written in 

the skies over Darling Harbour on Easter Day. 

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!